AN~ GUYS! Elligoat's best Sisters Grimm story of the year is on! And I've been nominated! This story has been nominated! Whoo! Y'all should go vote! Not for me if you don't like this one best, but it's a really fun contest and plenty of the stories are great. Go participate!
Samantha: Okay, on the one hand, Daphne probably should have listened to her friends because they love her and just wanted to protect her. On the OTHER hand, we don't want to sit on people's inclination to trust others, right? I mean, Daphne wanted to believe the best of him. And it's okay. I can deal with reviews that are all over the place.
ILOVESG: Thanks!
Toby's betrayal led to a pretty big lifestyle change on Daphne's part. She didn't stop trusting people altogether, or anything like that, but she gave them a second look, checking to make sure they weren't lying to her, and she stopped relying on her own judgement so much.
Veronica seemed to think this was a positive development.
Sabrina didn't seem to agree. Daphne was hoping there wouldn't be another talk like last time she'd had a rough breakup. Sure, comfort would be nice, but she'd been so dumb, and she didn't want Sabrina to be privy to that.
Not that, you know, anyone could stop Sabrina from getting information she wanted.
Which is how she ends up hearing her sister say, "I never wanted you to end up like me, you know."
"What?" Daphne asks, looking up at her sister from her homework.
"Jaded," Sabrina says.
Oh, wonderful. "I'm not jaded!" Daphne protests.
Sabrina raises her eyebrows at Daphne.
"I'm not!" Daphne insists.
"Right," Sabrina says, leaning against Daphne's door frame.
Okay, maybe she's a little jaded. But that doesn't mean she has to talk about it! Especially not with Sabrina, who helped put her together after her last rough breakup.
"I just know better than to trust people now," Daphne says, by way of explanation.
"That's what I said," Sabrina sing-songs.
This, in fact, is very much like what eleven-year-old Sabrina said every time Daphne scolded her for refusing to trust people.
"Please go away," Daphne asks, more politely than she thinks is really necessary.
"Why?" Sabrina counters. "You wouldn't leave me to sulk."
Daphne feels like they've had this conversation before. They probably have. She gives up and decides to allow her sister to comfort her. If it makes Sabrina feel better, maybe she'll leave her alone eventually. Plus, maybe it would be good to have someone to talk to. Just for a bit.
Sabrina sees the defeat on her sister's face and comes further into the room. She sits on the bed and says, "Did you love him?"
"Maybe?" Daphne says. "I mean, I liked him a lot. And I loved him in a, you know, friend love kind of way. But I don't know if I was in love."
Sabrina nods. After all, Daphne's a bit young to be in love. But then again, Sabrina was able to wake Puck from a sleeping spell at twelve, so maybe love's not as hard to pin down as Daphne thinks. In that case, then she did love him, and he broke her heart.
Jerkazoid.
Well, he's a d-bag either way, so whatever.
She just didn't want to believe anyone could be that mean and hurtful!
But she doesn't want to talk about it. Especially since she's crying already.
Sabrina's arms come around her before Daphne's aware that her sister has moved, and Daphne cries her heart out for the first time since her last breakup.
It's a long time before she's ready to date again, even though that's the beginning of her healing. She lets her hair grow out black again, and she's fairly happy, but she's very determinedly single for ages.
In fact, she's well into her junior year of high school by the time she gets her next serious boyfriend, and it's a good month into the school year before she even begins her practice dates.
Sabrina's off at college, leaving Daphne the heck alone finally, and Basil's doing a bunch of after school sports, so the house is quiet, with both of her parents working. Daphne finds herself spending more and more time at the animal shelter, because it's happy and safe.
And that's where she meets Christopher.
She's manning the desk when a boy comes in and asks if he can volunteer, and Daphne's first thought is that he's very, very hot.
Her second thought is that she really doesn't want to deal with showing someone new around, but she can, if she has to.
Especially one who's as nice to look at as this boy.
And she'll be polite and friendly, because Daphne is the nice sister, the one who likes people and makes them laugh. She won't let Toby steal that from her, ever.
Christopher, whose accent suggests he moved here from the Dominican Republic (she's learning to recognize that accent, and the particular way recent immigrants from the country will throw Spanish words into their conversations), has dark curly hair that fans around his head like a wispy halo more than an afro, and eyes that are darker brown even than Daphne's, which are almost as black as her and her mother's hair. His skin is lightly freckled, darker brown over tan, and she thinks his jaw could probably give her a paper cut, it's so sharp.
This is only the surface of what this boy is, though, Daphne finds as they walk through the shelter and she discusses what kind of volunteers they could use. The conversation turns to other things, as it always does, and she learns that Christopher shares her passion for helping those who can't help themselves. He and Daphne find themselves half shouting at each other in excitement over their shared views of how the immigration policy in the United States is flawed, and how horribly those who can't speak perfect English are treated in America if they're not from somewhere glamorous, like France.
Daphne, though, points out that it's not just immigrants who have it bad, and native peoples are treated somewhat worse, a lot of the time, even though they have more right to be where they are than anyone else. Christopher ("please don't call me Chris, it's so boring"), doesn't know as much about this predicament than Daphne does, but he's an eager listener, and when he learns about Daphne's personal ties to that, he pays even closer attention.
"Your mom got taken from her parents? Really?" he asks.
Daphne nods. "It happens to a lot of kids on reservations, especially the poorer ones. Their parents can't make enough money to take care of them, so instead of helping, the government takes the kids away and puts them in foster care."
"Geez," Christopher says. "That's awful."
Daphne nods again. "The foster system is really terrible, too." She describes some of her own experiences, as well as some of what her mom and recently discovered aunt went through. It's not a pretty picture.
Christopher stares. "Really?"
"Really," Daphne says. "I'm thinking about fostering when I get older, just so I can make sure a couple less kids have to go through that."
"I can see why," Christopher says. "I can't believe stuff like that happens. It sounds like it came out of a book or something!"
Daphne laughs a little. "Yeah, I know."
She doesn't mention how much of her life seems like it came out of a book. She wants to, a little. But she doesn't.
Originally, she doesn't like Christopher, not like that. Maybe she's scared of liking someone again, so she's holding back. Maybe she's not and she's just happy to have a friend. Either way, it's not until he asks her out that she starts thinking of him as more than eye candy and a cool person.
But once he does ask her out, she realizes that it's actually not just a pretty good match, but an idea she kind of likes. He's a person she kind of likes.
The first date goes great. They go to lunch, which is the date part, and then they go to a protest rally, which is how Christopher proposed the idea ('Hey, you wanna go to the protest on Saturday? I'll buy you lunch beforehand.' 'What, like a date?' 'Yeah. Like a date.' 'Sure, sounds fun.'), and afterwards he walks her home, both of them giggling the whole time.
Sabrina's in the kitchen when Daphne gets back, and she gives Daphne a knowing smile as she comes in, laughing, Christopher behind her. Daphne hadn't told Sabrina this was a date, but apparently Sabrina figured it out for herself.
"Don't," Daphne muttered to her sister, on her way to offering Christopher a cup of hot chocolate.
"I wasn't gonna say anything," Sabrina says. "I just haven't seen you this happy in a while. I like it."
Daphne rolls her eyes and mutters about how she wishes Sabrina could afford to live in a dorm again, but she can't keep her smile back.
Daphne thinks Christopher might be her soul mate. This is her longest relationship ever, and it's going great. He gets her in a way nobody's ever understood her before, and neither of them want to change each other at all. In fact, he thought her practice dates were adorable. Best of all, they can have thoughtful, in-depth debates about things and have separate opinions, and neither of them will get angry at the other, even if they're in the wrong.
The only problem is that she can't bring him to Ferryport Landing with her, come summer. And he's a year older than her, so he's going to college in the fall. She's afraid of the problems distance is going to cause. Lord knows they've done a number for Puck and Sabrina.
Then again, Puck and Sabrina are still sort of together, so maybe Daphne and Christopher will be fine. They're both more mature than Puck, and sometimes Daphne's pretty sure she's more mature than Sabrina, some days.
They'll be fine, right? She loves him too much for it not to be fine. And she's had enough breakups to last her a lifetime.
Yeah. If Puck and Sabrina can go months without seeing each other and still love each other, Daphne and Christopher will be fine. She's worrying about nothing.
Two months later, Granny Relda dies and Puck and Sabrina have the biggest fight in their history of knowing each other at the wake, and all of Daphne's certainties come crashing down.
Daphne spends more of her time crying than not, Sabrina is picking fights with anyone who will respond (Daphne thinks she's going out and looking for them, if the bruises she comes home with are any clue), Henry has shut himself down into something that more resembles a robot than Daphne's father, and Veronica is never still anymore, spending her time working or cooking or reorganizing the house or something or anything to keep from having to stop and think. Puck is gone, Uncle Jake is living in Granny's house, and every time Daphne calls him he seems more and more drunk or hungover or miserable ('It's not your fault, Uncle Jake. She decided to take the monster down on her own'). Red and Mr. Canis are both absolutely silent, and Pinocchio is acting cold and distant again. Basil just seems confused most of the time, and Daphne sort of gets it because the kid's ten and Lord knows she didn't really get it when Briar Rose died.
Christopher is Daphne's only salvation through this. He doesn't expect her to be happy or herself, but he stays with her and supports her and comforts her, and he tries to make her happy. He never makes her feel bad for crying, though.
Now she worries about him going to college because she's afraid of what she'll do without him there to support her.
Summer comes and Veronica decides she's going to clean Relda's house from top to bottom, getting rid of things the way they should have really done when the house was rebuilt eight years ago. She takes Sabrina, who she thinks needs to get away to somewhere she won't kill someone; Basil, who just wants his mom and to see Red; Daphne, who wants to help her best friend if she can; and Christopher, who wants to be there for the family. It's a long summer, but it's not as bad as Daphne thinks it will be, going into it. Being busy helps. Being surrounded by people she loves helps. Talking about Granny helps. Christopher helps.
It's still really, really hard. So much harder than losing Briar. Harder than anything Daphne's ever gone through before, and she's gone through lot in her sixteen years.
Losing the immediate closeness with Christopher will be hard, come fall, but she thinks she can make it. Anything will be easier than this.
Come August, he leaves, and she says goodbye, but she doesn't start crying. Daphne thinks she's beginning to heal. It's going to take a long time, but she'll be okay.
And she and Christopher can make it through this.